The hope of social mobility through success in this system was the motivation for going to school in the first place, whether one was the son
of a scholar or a farmer. But even for the farmer's son who did not do
well enough to take the exams even at the lowest level, going to school
had the major payoff of working literacy, and this literacy was acquired
through mastery of the same basic texts that others who went on to
pass the examinations at the highest level also studied. This curricular
uniformity had an extremely powerful effect on Chinese society, and the
major impetus for this uniformity was the meritocracy promoted by the
civil service examination system.

This text states that success on the civil service examinations
was

"dependent only on one's ability rather than one's social position."

What does that mean?

This quote means

i believe it would be capitalism

geography

this is because warmer climates often don't get people sick from the flu and regions where it was often colder more people received the flu. hope this if you need more reasoning i am here to

paul willis (born 1950) is a british social scientist known for his work in sociology and cultural studies. paul willis' work is widely read in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and education, his work emphasizing consumer culture, socialization, music, and popular culture. he was born in wolverhampton[1] and received his education at the university of cambridge and at the university of birmingham. he worked at centre for contemporary cultural studies and subsequently at the university of wolverhampton. he was a professor of social/cultural ethnography at keele university. in the autumn of 2010, he left keele university and is now a professor at princeton university.

paul willis’s work has focused mainly, but not exclusively, on the ethnographic study of lived cultural forms in a wide variety of contexts. from highly structured to weakly structured ones, willis examines how practices of `informal cultural production` to produce and construct cultural worlds `from below`.[2]

trained in literary criticism at cambridge,[2] paul willis received his phd in 1972 from the centre for contemporary cultural studies at birmingham university where he remained as senior research fellow until 1981. he gave a paper at the 9th symposium of the natiohnal deviancy conference in january 1972 entitled 'a motor-bike subculture

during the 1980`s willis served as youth policy adviser to wolverhampton borough council in the english midlands. there he produced the youth review (published by the council and ashgate) which formed the basis for youth policy and for the formation of the democratically elected youth council, both still functioning. during the 1990s he served first as head of the division of media, communications and cultural studies, and then as a member of the professoriate at the university of wolverhampton. in 2000 willis co-founded the sage journal, ethnography. in 2003 willis was hired as a head professor of social and cultural ethnography at keele university.

the spanish  

hope this meaning spain btw